A last waltz for Suzy-Ray-Vaughn, the Peninsula's adventurous roots-rock trio

For 16 years, the rock trio Suzy-Ray-Vaughn has helped the Peninsula discover the glorious back roads and lovely hidden corners of Americana music.

In its unpretentious fashion, the drummerless Hampton combo has offered an alternative to the hits-and-oldies formula that typically floods area pubs and bars.

While technically a cover band, Suzy-Ray-Vaughn taught its loyal fans to expect the unexpected.

It's been known to veer from punky Green Day to jazzy Dave Brubeck. And when it plays a Beatles song, it doesn't choose "Let It Be" or "Yesterday," but the rarely covered "A Day in the Life."

"There was always something about the other side of the record that I liked," said singer Vaughn Deel, whose bent sense of humor is reflected in the group's name, a play on that of the late Texas guitar hero Stevie Ray Vaughan.

"Back in the days when you'd drop a quarter in the jukebox, I'd look to see what's on the b-side," said the 58-year-old musician. "I'd play those b-sides just to hear what they sounded like. You'd find lots of gems there."

Soon, those gems will become harder to find.

Vaughn, along with guitarist Ray Bruce and vocalist-bassist Sueanne "Suzy" Doyer will play their final show on Friday, June 22, at the Weekend Pub in Newport News. It will be the finale of the band's farewell tour of favorite haunts including the Hampton Taphouse and Victorian Tea Station in Phoebus.

Why not keep a good thing going?

Doyer plans to move to Austin, Texas, this summer where she will continue to pursue her musical dreams and aspirations. Austin uses the slogan "The Live Music Capital of the World" for good reason. The ballrooms and bars of the town are legendary among roots music lovers.

"I went there for the first time about six years ago," Doyer said. "It was a great trip. I met people and just fell in love with it. It's grabbed my heart. It's got me. I've got to try it. If I don't, shame on me.

"I'm not going there to be a star," she said. "It's the people and the energy of the place and the big sky. I love everything about it."

Leaving the band is difficult, she said.

"There's nothing wrong with my life now," said Doyer, who is 57. "I love playing with Ray and Vaughn. I just need to try a little change and see what happens. I wish I could take everybody with me."

The group's fans are having trouble saying goodbye, too.

"My social life is going to hell!" lamented Newport News fan Laura Dollieslager. "They have been the center of a group of friends who have been gathering around them for years. It's going to be a terrible loss."

Dollieslager predicts the final show will be emotional. "The very best people I've ever met will all be there," she said. "We're going to be having a blast ... and crying. It will be fantastic."

Local musicians, who make up a key part of the Suzy-Ray-Vaughn core fan base, say they'll feel the band's loss acutely.

"Their depth of musical knowledge stretches so far," said Mike Glass, guitarist for local acoustic band The Delvers. "The range of material they play you'll never hear anywhere else."

For years, the trio has functioned as the Peninsula's traveling house band, a platform that gave moonlighting players a chance to step on stage and jam in a comfortable, low-pressure environment.

"That, to me, is one of the neatest parts of this band," Deel said. "Our musician friends, who are playing in all different kinds of bands, if they're not playing that night, a lot of them will come out to see us. To me, that is a great honor."

Not that Deel is respectful of his fellow players. His sense of humor would never allow that.

"This is Mark Hopkins! From whatever band he just got fired from!" Deel shouted, introducing the guitarist from the Jackie Scott blues band at the Weekend Pub last month.

A grinning Hopkins picked up Bruce's electric guitar and was quickly playing along to Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," a traditional set-ender for Suzy-Ray-Vaughn.

"You can tell they all love each other," Hopkins said. "They're like peanut butter and jelly. That's why nobody can take the place of Sueanne. Almond butter's not going to cut it."

Members of the trio say the combination felt right from the very beginning. The group made its debut performance at Bay Days festival in Hampton in the mid 1990s, but all three members had known each other since childhood.

"I met Ray in junior high school," Deel recalled. "He was playing at a sock hop at Thomas Eaton Junior High. A friend kept telling me about this guy he was in a band with who played guitar like you wouldn't believe … I went and watched him play and went, 'Oh, wow. I want to be in a band with that guy.' Eventually, I was."